I think a lot of the problem as well is the hype we get from Zoe on ITT.

The 'B' word is overused all week and we are told how excited everyone is to be 'going to Blackpool'. Really?

Then we get the nauseating VTs where the celebs are herded into the Tower Ballroom to gaze around in wonderment and breathlessly tell us "they are in the Tower Ballroom"

The Tower Ballroom is beautiful and doesn't need all the extra glitz that the Strictly road crew brings with them. Leave it at Elstree.

To see one couple dancing around that beautiful floor is all we need.

It's always a disappointment but we still get all the silly hype beforehand.

This ^^^

Me too!!

Not good, the sound was echoing around, the extra dancers were superfluous. Best thing all night was Peter Kay with Judge Rinder. Hysterical.

NAY NAY and thrice Nay. Get rid of 'em
I thought I was the only one who loathed Blackpool. It might have been better if they had used the Winter-Gardens. After all that is the heart of ballroom dancing.
Much as I dislike Blackpool, it has to be said,that it is better than Wem ber ly

On the whole I enjoyed it but the only dance I have wanted to watch again is Danny and Otis - usually there are at least three or four.

I think it was a mix of things.

The too high marks for Claudia right at the beginning meant the judges left themselves nowhere to go but up. and then down again at the end which was deflating. I love Judge Rinder but imo either Danny and Oti or Louise and Kevin should have closed the show!

Having all the better dancers in the first half seemed odd?! They should have mixed them up more.

I think quite a few of them were overwhelmed by where they were. They go on SO much about Blackpool that it is not surprising. It stops being a treat, a jaunt to look forward to and becomes a bit too much for them.

I also wonder how much rehearsal time they got considering they also took part in the group dance.

We are built up to expect too much as well, when it dosn't come off as being spectacular then we are disappointed.

Oh I have to add the backing dancers which is a personal irritation. Either keep them out of the way or lose them altogether. I havnt a clue what sort of view the judges had but there were a couple of times when I couldn't see Louise at all - that combined with her camouflage dress that blended in with the floor. The same with Judge Rinder, with all the jazzy lighting and costumes there were a few times when I couldn't keep track of where he was.

I agree with you. The camera work was dreadful, you couldn't see the dances and lost sight of the celebs. The sound wasn't great either.

I'm fed up saying about sh1tty camerawork. The esteemed BBC obviously think it 'adds to the viewer experience' to give a sort of fun park waltzer like experience. I can imagine a producer/director whoever's in charge of these things standing behind 2-3 seated assistants and a bank of screens screaming every few secs ...

'SWITCH TO 3!!!'
'SWITCH TO 1!!!'
'SWITCH TO OVERHEAD!!!'
'SWITCH TO WHIRLY WHIRLY CAM!!!'
'STAY WITH WHIRLY WHIRLY CAM!!!'
'SWITCH TO 2!!!'

And that's just within 20 secs of broadcasting

As others say, the end result is we don't get to see the dance properly. So Bruno then says 'oh and your footwork was sublime as you traveled across the floor 1/2 way through' and we're left thinking 'emmm, we didn't see their feet!!'

1 x static camera like we're in 1960? No. But just because the technology exists to 'do' things doesn't mean it has to be over-used ...

Oh yeah, and as for audience clapping, all the time, and often at inappropriate moments ... didn't you know we're in an era where it's evidently a sin to have even 10 secs of normality on these shows?!? The producers probably look on non clapping periods the same way radio producers look on silence as being dead air or whatever it's called.

It's like the Top of the Pops of the 70's where someone had found the SFX button, so every act was either in a box bopping round the screen, in some sort of fluorescent negative effect or had a guitar that gave coloured wibbly wobbly shadows. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

The additional dancers were almost if not more prominent than the contestants, very off putting .

Additional dancers were very distracting.

I figure they didn't want to bring the mood down at the start but praising Claudia's jive to high heaven as if the audience didn't just watch it too soured me on the rest of the show because it wasn't fair on the other dancers- either they had to be overmarked in comparison or be unlucky enough to receive an accurate score on a night when no one else was being marked sanely.

The Judge's scores seem to becoming increasingly irrelevant tbh.

Dancers in a high position end up in the dance-off and vice versa.

It would make some sort of sense if, say, the general trend from the public was to vote for dancers in the top half or two thirds of the leader board. At least then we would be seeing some sort of elimination based on "talent".

As it is though, to give the show a title such as Strictly Come Dancing is not relevant any more as it is no longer strictly about dancing, (or not at least when the public vote is taken into account). Indeed, it seems to be solely about public appeal and not related in any way to dancing talent.

Or, simply, do away with the Judges and invite the public to vote for their favourites and just eliminate the least favourite every week.

What's the chances that the least talented, according to the Judges, get through to another week tonight?

^^^ This is what happened to me too. I like Claudia but I just thought it very unfair. Her dance had many faults and yet nothing was said. Then all 4 (including Craig) gave it a 9. Really not right and made me think that there was a "judges' plan" afoot.

Ed Balls was there.

The issues with the show last night IMO were the following:

1. Overmarking and questionable praise of Claudias Jive set the (favouritism) tone at the beginning. At times I felt I had watched a different dance when I heard their critique.

2. Huge effort and improvement by Greg dismissed & unrecognised by the judges - IMO Greg and Judge Rinder were both better than Claudia last night

3. Backing dancers were very distracting and if they have to be there would be in the background and not interfering with the dance performance of the competing couple.

4. The lighting and colours made watching the actual competing couples a bit more difficult to see and appreciate properly.

I quite enjoyed the show but there was only one stand-out dance, for me, and only one deserving of 10s on the night and that was Danny and Otis Charleston